The Petroleum Marketing Association continues to insist it has not pressured the maker of the temperature-adjusted gasoline pump, Gilbarco Vedeer-Root, to keep its product out of the California market. Nonetheless the San Francisco Chronicle’s David Baker reports that Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, admits being pretty frank with Gilbarco, which is dependent on the association’s members to buy its other products.
According to the Chronicle:
Gilligan said his group didn’t pressure Gilbarco to drop its plans for California. But it didn’t like those plans, and it let Gilbarco know.
"We told them that what they did in California was not a good idea," Gilligan said. "We think it would be a very bad circumstance for marketers to choose to compensate for temperature."
Pressure probably means a little something different in the oil industry, but that sure sounds like pressure to me. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer said she would be calling Gilbarco executives, but the companies’ top executives are conveniently all in Europe and have not been able to get back to her. If a sunbelt state like California cannot have temperature-adjusted pumps, I guess it’s not unreasonable to imagine that corporate executives’ cell phones won’t work in Europe.
As for industry influence over Gilbarco, an insider has this to share based on the media reports on the hot fuel scandal.
Regarding industry influence over Gilbarco, Jay McKeeman, vice president of government relations for the California Independent Oil Marketers Association is a former big oil lobbyist. CIOMA is an association of independent distributors or jobbers and does not represent big oil and the only way they would know if the oil companies pressured Gilbarco is if they were a part of it. How they could know that big oil didn’t is beyond me. I would however be curious to see if CIOMA didn’t actually call or write Gilbarco. They have a big trade show every year and the Gilbarco execs are present and known to all.
Let’s hope California’s Attorney General and Senator Boxer keep the heat on the issue and get some answers.